France Makes Working After Hours and Weekends Illegal

Did you have a good weekend last weekend, or did you spend it chained to work? Did you have to go to a work event? How about emails? Did you have mounds of emails to go through? Be honest, how many times did the boss text you?

If you lived in France, you wouldn’t have had any of those things consuming your weekend life because it’s now illegal to work after your regular work hours, or on the weekend. In any capacity.

That’s right- France has made it completely illegal for anyone to work on their off weekend. I was talking to a friend whose sister just visited France and she confirmed that this is very true.

The law, which was recently passed in France, states if a business has more than 50 employees, they can’t bother them after work hours or over the weekend. Oh, and that includes emailing and texting.

French lawmakers say that employees have a “right to disconnect” and that being able to disconnect is “vital to keeping happy employees.”

How many times has your boss texted you over the weekend to tell you to remind them to tell you something on Monday morning? How many times has your boss called you after work hours to ask about a project? All of that would stop if you lived in France.

According to Counter Current News, Benoit Hamon, a member of the French National Assembly explained the reason behind this new law, saying, "Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash – like a dog. The texts, the messages, the emails – they colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down."

Can you imagine a world where when you leave work it doesn’t follow you? Yeah, me either.